s this is al jazeera america live from new york city, i'm tony harris with a look at the top stories. >> there are reports that israeli war planes hit a shipment from russia at the syrian port of latakia. the shipment was said to be russian missiles. the white house wouldn't comment. >> the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons today said the facilities to make chemical weapons are inoperable. >> a federal appeals court blocked a judge's ruling that blocked the nypd tactic known as stop and frisk. june shynnland ruled the tactic unfairly targeted minorities.

he's been removed. >> the nypd chief and mayor bloomberg argues that it helps to keep crime at historic lows. to keep crime at historic lows. the faa is loosening regulations of most electronic devices an aeroplanes. you can read, works, play games from the time you board until you get off the plane. making calls and texting is not allowed. a lawyer for nsa leaker edward snowden says his client found a tech support job at a russian web silt. edward snowden has been in russia since being grant asylum seekers in august. those are the headlines. "inside story" is next. >> an unusual coalition of big business groups and activists comes together to get immigration reform legislation moving. that is tonight's "inside

story." hello, i'm libby casey. the capitol has been buzzing with high profile congressional hearings on nsa surveillance and the problems with the dare's rollout. in the halls of congress there's a heavy weight lobbying campaign under way to push comprehensive immigration reform. it's week applied by the chamber of commerce is forward.u.s. among others. it's a group founded by facebook's mark zuker berg. >> house democrats introduced their reform. we'll talk with congressman jeff denham, the first republican to join with democrats as a bill

respond sore. >> president obama spoke to a room full of advocates at the white house on thursday in hopes of bringing the senate's im grayings bill back into the -- immigration bill back into the spot light. >> it doesn't make sense to have 11 million people in this country illegally an incentive to come out of the shadows, get right with the law, meet their responsibilities and permit their families then to move ahead. >> the border security you economic opportunity and immigration modernisation act passed in the senate in june 27th. it's in the hands of the house. it features border security, doubling border patrol with a boost in funding and mandatory use of force training. a pathway to citizenship, establishing a 13-year pathway to citizen ship and includes

security benchmark before they can get a green card. it increases high tech and low-skilled worker visas, requiring a workplace verification system. and law enforcement. detailing protection for workers and refugees, and what happens if an immigrant breaks the law. a poll conducted by a university a month after the bill found that 64% of americans supported the reforms. and 31% did not. on the heels of a government shutdown health care exchange errors and a string of revelations on nsa wire tapping of foreign allies - the push for a vote has been tossed on to washington's backburner. but special interest groups are rallying to reverse that, and national alliance of more than 600 business and conservative leaders from around the country begin a lobbying effort at the chamber of commerce hosting a pan 'em discussion on the bill's

potential economic impact. they met with 150 house republicans on the fence. the congressal hispanic caucus is pushing for a vote, holding a press conference that week. >> the question is when will the house republican leadership allow a vote on the floor of the house of representatives for us to pass a commonsense reform of the broken immigration system. >> republican house speaker john boehner tiptoed around the topic, torn between warring factions within the party. >> i think immigration is important. it's a subject that needs to be addressed. >> many house republicans are hesitant to vote on any immigration bill, they fear it could turn into a road for amnesty. only three gop representatives are joining with democrats to respond sore reforms. the house has its own processes. >> joining us from capitol hill is congressman jeff denham, the

first republican house member to come out in support of the democrats version of immigration reform. thank you for joining us this evening. some republicans in your kauk us are talking about taking a piecemeal approach, rather than a comprehensive effort that you are working on. they say pass a border security, then worker visas and we'll get to other parts as time goes on. why your approach rather than piecemeal. >> it's a bipartisan bill. one of the things i have been working on is to have amendments accepted under this, dealing with the republican border security bill as well as a number of other measures in the senate bill. they have accepted my enlist act, the fastst pathway to citizenship. if you want to serve as many immigrants have, you ought to be able to gain citizenship. you have to discuss the reform package. my concern is we'd be passing

one part of reform, and waiting a decade or two decades and increasing the type of program that we have today. we need to address all aspects of immigration, securing our border, internal security, verifying who is working and making sure we have americans applying for the jobs first. ultimately, we have to have a pathway to citizenship. >> amnesty is a poison pill word. how do you convince fellow republicans that a pathway to citizenship is different to amnesty. >> we have amnexty today -- amnesty today. doing nothing is amnesty. this bill is a 6-year process. you have to pass a background check, pay backfine, backtaxes and speak english. after six years you apply a second time for provisional status, and then after 10 to 12 years you can file to become a legal permanent resident.

you have to be in the country the entire time. you have to go through all of these different ways to earn the citizenship and make sure you have not broken any laws. if you have been employed during the entire time, we ought to be looking at a pathway to citizenship to get people out of the shadows and coming forward to be part of her solution on the economy, part of the solution on medicaid and social security. >> you mentioned you are a veteran yourself and you are looking at that component on getting those that served in the military on a pathway. what are you hearing from business leaders, people in the agriculture community and undocumented immigrants living in your california district? >> there has been a lot of uncertainty in california, everything from ag to labour force and high unemployment rates. we need to solve the issues with immigration reform. from an economic standpoint it's

a trillion over the next two decades. we were here after the shutdown dealing with 17, 18 trillion of debt. this is something that can help us through that. on a local level we need to make sure we address immigration from an employment stand point. we have kids at school, into our colleges. we need a pathway for citizenship not only for the dreamers, but that we have gainful employment. >> what are the chances of your bill getting to the floor. we saw the hassett rule or guideline broken during the debt-ceiling debate. this is a rule saying a speaker does not bring a bill to the board unless he has the republicans on board. that doesn't look likely. any chance of this coming to the floor so a bipartisan group can vote on it. >> our goal is to get as mane recans on the bill. the closer we goat to 218 -- get

to 218 votes, but the overall immigration debate comes to the floor in a full fashion. that's what we need, a full debate in front of the american public to show what the bills do - whether individually or a comprehensive bill. it will not only be up to individual members, but up to the american public to define. >> who has the laudest voice and important voices - you and your col eegs listen to - is it the business community, dream e the young people brought to the country - who has the ear? >> i don't think it's one group in particular. one thing that is different is immigration is different from district to district, from state to state. one thing that is constant is the faith based community and the public safety community. both von aggressive throughout the nation, talking about the impacts of immigration. it's important for business communities and dreamers and

those that are effected directly. there's nothing like having the faith-based community throughout the nation sending the same message to individual members. that will help us to drive it forward. >> do you feel like a trailblazer, the first republican to get on board with the bill. >> i know it's something that has to get done. it's something i feel in my own family, in our community. i'm elected to be a leader. i expect to see more leaders willing to step forward. i had a number of members coming to me afterwards saying, "look, this is not something i have had to deal with in my district. tell me why it's important." we are having a dialogue, that's what we need to do." >> what is the crucial timeline. we talk about immigration reform being too close to an election or too far away from an election. what is the golledy locks moment when -- golledy locks moment when action can happen. >> this is it.

we believe it has to get done. leadership has committed to bringing immigration to the floor. the challenge with the bill is there's no deadline, no fiscal cliff, no debt ceiling day that we run out to, not like the farm bill where milk prices go through the roof. unfortunately when we have issues like syria come up, this is an issue that is pushed further and further out. we are aring drawing a line -- we are really drawing a line in the sand saying, "it has to get done." we have less than three weeks to address it and we need the nation to focus on it. >> thank you for joining us. we'll take a break. when we come back a panel discussion on the push for comprehensive immigration reform. this is "inside story."

refor

refor refor welcome back to "inside story." we are discussing immigration reform and the loggying efforts to get a bill through. joining us now are gabby, director of the bridge project, and bipartisan proimmigration reform group. and marty, executive vice president ever the u.s. chamber of commerce.

and correspondent for national journal. >> you reported that president obama is beating the drum on immigration reform after other distractions. you wrote until republicans move it is not going anywhere. how significant is it that we see a handful of house republicans, three, signing on to immigration reforms? >> it is significant but other republicans in the house want to see an immigration reform pass. the bill that the three republicans dine, and jeff depp am is one. they signed a democrat sponsored bill introduced by the minority leader nancy pelosi, with the co-sponsorship of the democratic kauk us. it's meant to be a democrat opening bid to say, "we are ready to work on immigration, are you?", when i saw it introduced i thought there's no way that republicans will do anything on this, because it looked very partisan at the

beginning. to have a couple of republicans put their name on it - that doesn't mean they are trying to buck the speaker or trying to rebel against the leadership. what they are saying to their constituents is, "i care about the issue, and putting my name on it meant i'd like to do something. if the speaker decides to do something, i would be more than happy to move forward." >> what are the deal breakers. when you talk about immigration reform, what does it mean? >> for us, it's an economic issue that shouldn't be surprising as a business association. on both extreme ends of our labour force, there are defin sis. there's not enough high skilled workers with advance degrees, particularly in science technology, engineering and math mattic and agricultural jobs and hospitality jobs. we are a big tourism and agriculture state. they are having a hard time filling the positions. they need to harvest crops,

things they need to keep businesses running and grow and expand and create jobs. they are having a hard time to do that. we don't have the labour that's qualified to do the jobs. without the labour it's a hurdle for the economy. >> how representative have republicans been in your state to the proposals you are talking about? >> they understand the issues we face m one thing that is clear, especially on the trip to washington dc, that several business leaders from our area took this week, is the members of the delegation under the issue, that they understand it as well if maybe not better than some of our business leaders. but they are facing opposition in other areas that makes it difficult to proceed. they know what the right thing to do is. they want to move forward. it's a matter of how can we do that, coming to an agreement with all parties. >> where do you look for leverage. >> well, it's the reality that the american public, when you g

look at immigration and you disclose a little information of what marty was talking about, the economic impact on immigration - people are in favour of it, more than ever before. so that is the lefr rig. the other is the 2012 elections, which we are forgetting about as we get closer to 2014. the reality then was that it was a hum population of -- huge population of latinos in florida, california, utah that made a difference in the elections. the more and more republicans that have latino constituents saying and pushing on immigration reform, the more you see people like denham and others coming out and saying i want to do this because my constituents are asking me. >> these are the republicans signing on to the democratic house version.

>> i foresee we'll get a lot more. there is about 11 to 12 republicans whose feats are potentially can be taken out because latinos will vote and say, "hey, you are not voting on issues that i care about, which is immigration. >> when you talk about speaking with legislators, members of congress, you talk about giving them political cover. what does that mean. >> we tried to make it as easy as possible for them to take the side of the issue that we are on. we are talking about political cover. we say, "you don't have to lead out, we'll lead out, showing you that there is broad support for comprehensive immigration reform", we had a number of bills pushed through the state legislator a couple of years ago, some we needed to change, and we crafted the utah compact. it's been copied in other states. it laid out the five basic principals to guide the discussion, saying these are unintended consequences you may

not think about when you hit the national talking points on immigration. we had the business community sign and show strong support for it, and the religious community, as well as other civic leaders - law enforcement as well. by showing broad support for immigration, what we were trying to do was show the members of the house of representatives and at the time our senators, that this is something that the people in our state feel strongly about. you are not going out on a limb and supporting this, we are trying to be as loud as the vocal opposition. >> we'll take a break. when we come back we'll talk about immigration reform and its prospects. this is "inside story."

about immigration reform and s

welcome back to "inside story." tonight we are digging into immigration reform, and the unusual coalition of groups coming together to pressure congress. still with us is gabby, director of the bridge project. from salt lake city marty carpenter, executive vice president of the salt lake change ber. >> and von johnson. correspondent. >> republicans and other members talk about taking a piecemeal approach to immigration reform, rather than going for a comprehensive bill. how are they different? >> when you look at comprehensive immigration reform you look at a big package, like the one that the house - it has introduced hr15, and the one that the senate passed, where you think about step by step

approaches, that they divide all that and dice it up into little pieces, and potentially pass some and not the others. so there's a lot of fear that people believe they'll pass the border security, but not the legalisation piece. >> not the pathway to citizenship. >> which leaves a stool that has four legs, leaving a lot of people, which is 11 million right now out of being able to get legalisation, which is a huge problem, and why we need comprehensive immigration. >> are you supporting some steps with fingers crossed that you'll get everything that you want. are you saying, "no, we should wait and do one comprehensive package. >> we are in the believe that if we do a step by step approach that republicans, those that see it, it's not a scary thing. forgive the halloween, but gob lips and witches and -- goblins and witches and things will not

come out of the closet. they'll realise legalizing a component, if it's the dreamers, an agriculture piece or high-tech, it's not about saying the world willened. >> dreamers are young people that come to the country with the parents looking for a pathway to citizenship, getting an education. >> that's right. >> what are the realistic prospects of hr-15 versus the piece mill approach. >> hr-15 is not going to pass the house. the purpose is for the democrats and some of the republicans to come forward and tell people they want to do something, and it's not them that's stopping it from happening. when it comes to the poohs meal approach in the house, i think the chances are slim, i must say. the republicans particularly the ones in leadership have their hands full. they are trying to come up with a budget deal that has alluded

them for three years. they know that the public had it up to here with the budget standoff and that is their first priority. those in leadership, this includes speaker john boehner said they'd like to do something on immigration reform. the question is when? it doesn't have to be right now. if they do, if they egly - let's -- eventually - let's say the stars align and they come up with a small budget compromise making everyone feel better, they'll move forward with a few pieces. in order to do everything they need a legalisation xont. they'll -- component. they'll need something for kids. eric cantor has a bill for kids, and something for the enforcement piece of it. so this could be a number of different things. it could be a border bill to pass the homeland security. it could be something involving employment verification. they need the pieces and deal

with agriculture. they do those three things, they'll move into negotiations with the senate to get a package. that's what everyone wants to see. i don't know when it will happen. >> we hear from some republicans, including from labrador saying, "no discussion. the democrats played hard ball on negotiation, we are not interested in seeing it happen." how frustrating is that? >> it's washington gamesmanship and is not productive. we have a broken immigration system that needs to be addressed. we have a supreme court decision saying it should be handled by congress at the federal level. we determined there is a problem, and who is supposed to fix it, it's unacceptable when those who are supposed to fix it will not address it. >> is it a gone issue? >> well, we hope not. what we are encouraging the members of our delegation to do is be productive, keep the

dialogue going, we understand some are in favour of a presencive approach. senator hatch was key in getting that passed out of the senate. we understand there's members of the delegation in the house who have issues with that. whether it's a comprehensive bill or whether it's a package of individual bills, let's keep the dial okay going -- dialogue going, keep the moment um, pass what you can pass. we'd like it done sooner than later. it impacts the economy. this is hurting our ability to grow our economy. that's the biggest reason something needs to get done. >> gabby, you are an undocumented merp. american, your voice is part of the decision. is immigration reform dead. what are you going to make sure it isn't. >> it's not dead and it's not. >> why not? >> you have part of an equation missing, which is undocumented americans, like myself, who are every day on the hill talking to

members, pressuring them, getting the cause and being able to get them to understand that this is something that as long as they doan do something -- don't do something, they won't get away with it. >> i've seen gabby on the hill talking to the republicans that could making is happen. what is interesting to me about this is that republicans would like nothing more than to not have to talk about this. it is very uncomfortable for them. they don't win anything by moving forward. certainly it will not help their elections. >> if people like gabby will not go away, they'll be force said to. >> that movement has been a huge different over the last several years. >> we'll have to leave it there. >> thank you to our guests. that's all for now from the team in washington and me. thank you for watching.

>> in the early hours of april 16th 2009, bolivian special forces burst into a hotel in downtown santa cruz. within minutes three european guests had been shot and killed. when news of the raid broke, the bolivian a